Stolen Sun (The Juliana Lucio Series) (6 page)

My husband was from Italy and my opposite; he was tall and naturally lean
.
Y
ou could see his muscles glide under the tailored business suits he wore every day.  I couldn’t
wait to tear them off him at night, even after a grueling day at work and years of marriage.

I reached out to put my hand on the glass but didn’t
want to bring attention to the movement, so I just stepped back into the shadows to watch him for a moment longer. As I was about to move on to try to catch a glimpse of my boys, Antonio suddenly lifted his head to look straight in my direction. He began to get up and walk toward
the window, and I fell back further, willing myself to remain unseen. As much as I wanted to let him know I
was safe, not dead or half-alive in a ditch somewhere, I couldn’t
bear the thought of them being murdered
because they found out about me. Ana was right; my being here was
too dangerous.

Antonio stopped to stare out the window into the yard; he was leaning on his arm speaking to Talia
.
“She’s out there, I know she is. If she could get back to us, she would. We have to find her, get her safe.”

He spoke with such sorrowful pain that it was breaking my heart all over again. I was seeing the full extent of his love, he wasn’t
merely going to let me go, he was fighting for me.

“Antonio --” Talia spoke tentatively as though she wasn’t
sure how fragile he really was, “You heard the Detective, they don’t think that with the amount of blood found at the scene there could be any way she could possibly be alive -- even if they haven’t discovered… where she is yet.”

He spun around more rapidly
than I would have thought possible in his state, “She is alive! I will find her. Talia, it’s getting late, I think you should probably go home now.”

He said the last stiffly as though it was taking everything he had not to throw her physically out the door himself. He was angry, and tired, which made his Italian accent come though more heavily.  I’d always loved hearing it and would sometimes playfully instigate him just to hear more of it, but now it pained me because it was my fault he was hurting and so utterly tired.

As soon as the door shut
,
Antonio fell to his knees and held his head in his hands
;
he muttered to himself, “Jules, where are you? I need you, we need you!
Tu sei il mio sole, il mio amore.
”
You are my sun, my love.

I couldn’t
take anymore
;
I had to leave, but I needed to see my sons before I went. I gave my hand a kiss and pressed it to the window as I passed my husband, “I love you Antonio, with my whole heart.”

I quickly
scaled the side of the house to the second story and found my oldest son Christian had his bedroom window opened about six inches to let in the breeze
.
H
is curtains were drawn open wide, and I could see him lying in bed with his brother Evan. He usually wouldn’t
let his little brother in bed with him, but I guess they too
were both drawing on the other for comfort.

“Hey Christian, are you awake?”

I stifled a gasp; I was so caught up in longing, at looking at the two of them, at being proud of them for comforting the other I hadn’t realized they both weren’t asleep.

“Yeah, I’m asleep. Go back to bed before I make you go back to your own room.”

This threat didn’t
seem to bother little Evan much because he kept on talking just like I knew he would.

“Where do you think Mom is?”

This time, the tears falling were my own. I began to squeeze my eyes shut and felt them falling down my face.

“I don’t know. Dad says we’ll find her, but I overheard the Detective tell him that she was probably not going to be coming back home.”

“Why would Mom leave us? She loves us, it doesn’t make sense that she would leave us.”

Evan was crying now, and I didn’t care anymore that I was a vampire
;
I couldn’t
let my children hurt like this, to be left thinking that I had left them!

I reached for the window to pull it open when something stopped my hand. I looked over to see Ana, sitting there holding my wrist and shaking her head no, she had a sorrowful look to her eyes that was almost pleading.

I heard Christian moving and I turned my attention to him, he was turning on his side to wrap his arms around Evan, as he held him he spoke softly, “She didn’t leave us buddy, Mom would never do that, if she’s gone she was taken. Mom would never leave us do you understand, we are her whole heart, you can’t live without your heart.”

And
this is when
I fled.

I turned into the night and ran with all the strength and speed my new vampire abilities could lend me. I blew by people so quickly I’m sure they thought I was just a breeze. I felt at any moment I might gain enough momentum to take flight. I was running from the agony of my family, I was fleeing away from the possibility that I could bring them more harm by revealing myself to them. I didn’t
know how to fix it, so I ran. I ran until I thought I might run into the sun.

I began to feel a slight tingling sensation at the back of my neck and an undercurrent of guilt. I slowed down enough that Ana had caught up to me. I stopped running and turned to look at her with my grief stricken eyes
.
S
he just stared at me, not quite sure what to say, not sure if I were
going to take off running again.

“
The sunrise will be coming soon,
” She said a little apprehensively, as if not sure whether I would be welcoming this information or not.

“You have to help me fix this Ana, I don’t know how to fix it, and I need to fix this.” I fell to my knees, my head in my hands; it wasn’t lost on me that I was mimicking my husband’s earlier pose.

She stood over me looking down with sorrow and pity, “I’ll help you. We’ll fix this together somehow.” 

T
he police didn’t
know exactly what had happened to me, there wasn’t
a weapon or DNA of my perpetrator at the scene, the security cameras didn’t
work that night, and they suspected that whoever did it either worked at the hospital or took my badge to open the gate.

I found all this out by continuing to visit my family in the evenings after feeding
.
I didn’t
have anything else to do, and it made me feel less anxious watching over them. I overheard as Antonio was told I had been beaten, possibly killed, and abducted from the employee parking garage. The police, of course, had still not found my body, but there was a lot of
my blood at the scene, my broken cell phone, and my missing car; they were on the verge of declaring me dead anyways. Antonio still refused to believe it, even from the police.

Ana never let me see her, but I knew she was nearby, watching over me; just as I did with my family. I sometimes sensed
two signatures and wondered why William felt the need to follow me as well.

I was sitting in the tree house in my backyard when I began talking out loud
to Ana. I didn’t
know her exact location, but I could tell she was near, and
I was betting she could hear me.

“Ana, we need to give them a body; we need to give them something to make it look like they have finally found me. Antonio needs closure. I am going to reveal myself to my family or put an end to this one way or another.”

No response.

I thought the threat of revealing myself would be enough to make her come out of hiding.
Where was she anyway?

“Ana, you said you would help me. At least come out to talk to me.”

I saw my son leaving the house, again. He had been going out later than usual for the past three nights now. I would have followed him, but it seemed that Talia was always over as he left. I wanted to know if her interest in my family was innocent or if she were
trying to move in on my husband before he’d even buried me. Besides, Christian was 16 now, he had a life with his friends
.
I was glad he was going out again, and he was always home before I left.

Talia was in the living room talking to Antonio, “Have they told you anything new?”

“Nothing, the detective at the station isn’t answering my calls
.
I hope that means he’s out trying to find Jules, but I have a feeling he’s just blowing me off.”

Antonio blew out a sigh of frustration and let his head fall back onto the couch. He looked as if he had
at
least showered and combed his hair today, but he was still sporting scruff along his face and looked just as wearied as he had the previous nights. Talia began to rub his shoulders in a comforting way but let her hands linger just a little longer than she would have normally. It’s just my imagination. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.

“I’m sure they’ll call as soon as they know something, they wouldn’t not tell you, if they knew anything.” She quickly changed the subject, “Antonio, how are you and the boys holding up? Are you sure I can’t do anything to help? Why don’t you come over to my place tomorrow, and I’ll cook all of you dinner. I’m sure you could all use a little distraction right now.”

She was smiling sweetly, and I should be grateful for her trying to cheer them up
.
I wanted them to start to move forward, but I felt as if she was trying
to steal them from me. It was contradictory of me, I know, but I didn’t
want my husband to be attracted to her, even if it did help him.

I decided to head back to William and Ana’s; I still wouldn’t
call it my place, or home for that matter.

I had to walk around the corner to get the car
.
William had been letting me drive his Audi R8, and it was a sweet ride to say the least. It handled like no other sports car that I’ve
heard of
.
I
t is loaded
with technology, luxury, and took
corners like it was on rails. I knew he inspected it every night when I got back to the garage; a few times I intentionally waited until the last minute to go inside so he would have to wait until the following nightfall to look it over. A little sadistic, I know, but sometimes I can’t
help myself.

I was still preoccupied
with trying to figure out why Ana wouldn’t
talk to me, as I was pulling the car in the garage.  As I predicted, William was out the backdoor of the house waiting for me
to hand over the key fob before I even had the thing in park. I just gave a slight smirk and handed it over, as he made his rounds about the car.

“Hey William, do you have any idea when Ana’s going to be home? I’ve wanted to talk to her about something.”

“She’s in the kitchen now, been working on something for nights.”

He told me a little distractedly as he bent down to inspect the undercarriage. Did he think I had been going four-wheeling or something?

“What do you mean she’s back already
;
there’s no way she can beat me home when I’m driving this beauty. Did you know that you can hit 90 in about six seconds flat on a straight away?”

That got his attention. “I mean, so I’ve heard, on the commercial . . . they were doing a road test . . . err, or something. I’m just gonna go get Ana, how did she get home so fast, exactly?” I started backing toward the door then made a break for it as soon as I was clear of the garage.

“Juliana! I told you no speeding in my Audi, and they don’t make commercials for this, so I know that was a lie! Next time you’re taking the bike, and by that I mean the pedaling kind!”

He was stalking after me into the house when I found Ana perched at the kitchen table with all kinds of maps, notes, pens, highlighters all scattered across the kitchen table. There was a pot of coffee that had been brewed
a little while earlier; I knew both William and Ana did that not because they could consume it, but rather because they believed
the aroma was soothing. She had obviously been here for a while and had not just walked in the door as I suspected.

I turned on William, “Why did you just let me talk to myself like that? You knew I wanted to talk to Ana, and you just let me carry on. You could have shown yourself you know instead of skulking around in the bushes.”

This caught the attention of both of them.

“What are you talking about; I told you she was here as soon as you asked about her?”

“I’m not talking about now. I’m talking about earlier, at my house. I was trying to talk to Ana, to get her to come out of hiding. She was obviously here, so it must have been you.”

This caused the two of them to exchange confused glances with one another.

“Jules, I’ve been here all night long, fretting over what you were doing to my Audi. I wasn’t following you
;
if I were
,
I wouldn’t ‘skulk’, and you wouldn’t know about it.”

“Well someone was there; I know what it feels like when you two are around. So who was it then?”

I still wasn’t
sure I believed them that they weren’t following me
.
I knew what other vampire signatures felt like, and I always knew when either of them was drawing close. They had been doing it all week.

I suddenly had Ana’s full attention, “Why is it that you think you’re ‘feeling’ us?”

“Give me a little credit would you
;
I know what another vampire signature feels like. I feel a prickling go up the back of my neck
,
and I can even sense how many there are. I feel it every time I’m at my family’s house; the sensation stays with me the entire time I’m there, that’s why I thought it was the two of you. Making sure I didn’t try something stupid again. It starts up about a quarter of the way there.”

Silence. I could feel Ana’s tension rising like the sun, but she said and did nothing, William was just as good at giving nothing away. I was going to count to ten before I lost it, that’s
what the professionals say to do right, count to ten? I made it to three.

“What the Hell is going on!” I yelled without caring I was losing my temper. Again.

“Ok, look
,
there have been some other vampires in town
.
I ran into one of them the other night on my way to check up on you
.
” Ana was the one looking angry now.

“I knew it! I was right you guys were skulking around in the bushes!”

“We were not – anyways, on my way there I came across them hunting some prey, and I say that lightly because I would not have come across them unless they wanted me to know they were here.”

Ana seemed tense, and I knew she was hiding something. I didn’t
always let on to everything I could sense from her, but this I knew, she wasn’t
telling me everything.

“What did they want?”

“They wanted to meet you, to see how my new ‘child’ was doing,” she said with a sneer.

“They wanted to know why you were out by yourself, and not with me
.
T
hey were genuinely surprised to see that you are not as ‘attached’ to me as most newly turned vamps are to their makers. I told them you were out feeding with William and that you two have a way of teaming up in order to keep from killing.”

Ana had a look of guilt that flashed across her face that disappeared just as quickly
.
S
he was good at hiding her emotions, but I was getting good at reading hers, plus I could feel it.

“Why do I feel your guilt Ana? What’s wrong with them knowing about me?”

“It’s them isn’t it?” William interrupted, “The Retta’s. They didn’t like it that we still weren’t killing our prey, nor that we are teaching a new vampire to not kill as well.”

I was getting more and more anxious about the entire situation.

“Wait, if you and William weren’t with me all week, and I was sensing other vampires
,
then that means that they know where my family . . .” My voice was trailing off at the end, for half-a-second the room began to spin, I felt William reach out to steady me before I fell.

“No, I made sure to stay away from you; I haven’t gone with you since after the first night you saw them. I didn’t go see you the night I ran into Victoria. I didn’t want to lead them to you,” Ana said hurriedly.

“I did, I went to you.” William started saying quickly, “Just once, after that first time you went to see your family. I wanted to make sure you were okay; I was going to ask if I could stay with you
-- I wasn’t skulking around; I just wanted you to know I was there if you needed me. You looked so content though, so different from the first time you came home that I didn’t want to intrude. I left and haven’t bothered you since, I swear it.” His face fell as he finished explaining, “Oh my God, it was me. I led them right to you and your family.”

His deep brown eyes turned their full intensity on me; he grabbed me by the upper arms and forced me to look him in the eye.

“You need to believe me; I didn’t do it on purpose!”

I still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but the news of these two vampires being in town was apparently a very, very bad thing. William turned his repentant eyes on Ana, only he gave her daggers of anger.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you let me lead them right to her! What are you trying to do?”

I had never seen him so angry before and realized what I thought was anger before was really just mild annoyance.

“Are you so jealous of one kiss that you’d risk her life? Is that what this is about?”

He was getting closer to Ana as he yelled at her, his eyes were almost all black with is anger.

“How dare you accuse me of endangering her life
. 
I’m not the one that led them straight to her
.
I think you’re the one that’s jealous over her husband. Not being able to get her into bed because she’d rather sit and watch him through a window all night long instead!”

William gave a loud roar like one I’d only ever heard on the discovery channel and lunged for Ana with his arms stretching long for her throat
.
S
he met him mid-air and their bodies collided in turmoil of pent-up aggression, jealously, anger, and fear of what was coming. They scratched and tore at each other; Ana backhanded William across his cheek and left a wide gash going across his right cheekbone.

Almost as soon as it was there it was healing up on its own. William retaliated by grabbing her arm and bending it backward
.
I heard a series of sharp snaps that left her arm dangling in an odd manner and knew that he just gave her a completely dislocated open spiral fracture. Ana responded by pushing her arm back into place, and I could hear the bones snapping themselves back together. As educational as this was on the vampire physiology and its healing abilities
,
this was getting me nowhere, while my family was in danger.